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You need to figure out if the problem is coming from the head unit or if it is in the amplifier.

If you have a voltage meter, you can use it to find out very quickly.

Set the meter for DC and for a max level of more than 12 volts. Most meters I use have a 30 volt level. That would be a good setting.

Take the black lead and make sure it is grounded to the chassis of the car or to the ground of the power terminal, be careful and make sure it does not touch anything else.

With the RCA cable disconnected put the red lead on the inner part of the RCA cable and see if there is any DC voltage and then check the ground or outer part of the cable. Do the same for the other channel as well.

It should be very close to zero volts. A couple of millivolts is fine to. Any voltage here will cause the amplifier to go into protect mode, which is what is happening to you. You will then need to have the head unit serviced.

If you have a Pioneer head unit, I have seen many of them with an open ground fuse for the RCA jack. That fuse is a surface mounted fuse and is very small and hard to locate on the main board of the radio. If you do have a Pioneer head unit the voltage may seem OK, but you will have an open ground, but that normally does not put the amp into protect. It makes the audio sound very weak and you would have a loud hum. I can help you with that if it turns out to be the problem.

If the voltage on both the RCA leads is OK, then you need to check the amplifier.

You can put the meter lead on the ground of the RCA jack on the amplifier, if you have anything abnormal there, you have a problem in the amplifier. Be careful checking this because you can easily touch the lead to the chassis of the amplifier at the same time as the RCA ground. Most of the time, if yu have a problem in the amplifier like the one you are having, this check of the RCA ground will result in some DC voltage on it. If it still checks OK, then put the lead into the RCA ground and check the positive part of it. You may need to move the lead around a little to get it to touch the metal inside, it is on the bottom part of the hole inside the jack.

I think you will find that you have some voltage on the RCA inputs of the amplifier. To fix this properly you will need to take it in to be serviced.

Sometimes you can ground the RCA jack ground somehow with a jumper wire and then turn the system on with the RCA cable plugged in and it will seem normal. But you do not want to do that as a repair, only to see if the amp will play. If it does play, you know that the problem is in the pre-amp of the amplifier. That would be the only reason to connect an external ground to the RCA jack. You still have a problem in the amplifier. If it does not play normal, you still have a problem in the amplifier if there was some DC on the RCA jack.

Sorry this answer is so long, but the problem you are having will require service of one of your units, you just need to know which one it is. If your inputs get grounded, you will not have the amp go into protect, you just won't hear anything.

Let me know if you need more help and if this was helpful to you a good rating is always appreciated.

Have you tried turning your gain down a little and then slowly turn the gain up while the sound is on!!!! There could be a pinched wire in you speaker wires!!!! Make sure your remote wire is not touching any metal or ground wire!!!!

the problem is mostly with your audio side of the amp. i have a 800 Rockford punch series amp hooked in series running at about 15 vdc at 2 ohms stable for now. but the amps left front power side transistors overloaded and smoked out, i will be replaceing my mosfets soon. Now on that side your issues apear to be related to the signal side of the amp. when you hooked the amp up tell me breifly did you hook the rca inputs to the back of the sterio and did you select the proper rca inputs for the amp? also note that amps have a potentiomater that can be tuned up or down to allow the volume or wattage to go up or down threw the system. if it's turned all the way down you'll here nothing. but often you'll get a pop sound or quickly see the speaker move a bit. this indicated the signal side of the amp has signal comming in but no output, just look for a turnable small screw inside the amp top or side. and turn up acordingly. note: to much output will damadge your system. not just the amp. ;)

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Disconnect all the wires except the three main power wires, ground, 12v battery and remote. Now, turn on your radio, if the protect light is still on then there's an internal short in the amp. If the light turns green, then there's a short in either the auxiliary cables or the speaker outs. If it turns green, then troubleshoot the other wires that plug into the amp by connecting them one at a time until the protect light comes on, which will tell you that there's a problem with that speaker/aux wire.

If the light is out, it's not getting power or is in protect mode to prevent further damage. If you have a voltmeter, measure the voltage between GND and 12V (BAT terminal) and also between GND and REM terminal (with the car and radio on).

If neither has voltage, your ground wire has come loose. If the bat terminal has no voltage, your fuse under the hood is blown (they can blow and still look fine sometimes) or your power wire is loose or broken. If the REM terminal has no power, your wire is broke or has come loose from the back of the stereo.

Wire connection is not right or the power source is not enough. Make sure the radio wires connected to the car are correct and that the usually blue and white REM wire from the radio is connected to the REM position in amp. Power source must be straight from battery not from anywhere else. Ground wire should be connected any metal bolt in trunk or to a new hole drilled into frame. Also make sure that the wires for speakers are running on 1 side of the car and the power is on the other side, never together on same side of car. Hope this helps.

Remove amp from vehicle, connect Directly to Battery, then short REM line to Ground, see if amp comes out of "protect" If it does, you have either a short or a bad connection on your power wires between amp and battery, If testing amp directly to battery and it doesnt come out of protect, it meens you fried the amp and likely your problem is wiring between the amp and the speakers, or even the speakers themselves (shorted) .. If you Drive your speakers hard enough they can overheat and short out after a short blast... anywhere from 10seconds to 45 mins.. depends on many variables.

Check the fuses. If the fuse is bad the amp's power supply is burnt. If the red light stays red and never goes green then your amp is in protect mode and the output section is burnt.To test for rem. problem just use a jumper wire (paper clip... or whatever)to jump from +12v power to rem. If rem. wire has no voltage when your radio is turned on that will make your amp come on. then look for the fuse in the rem. line. Good luck !